Parshat Beshalach: Parshah Resources

Splitting of the waters, above and below

Based on the wording describing the splitting of the Red Sea, the sages learn that all the waters on the earth split, not just the Red Sea. The Torah, teshuvah (return to God), and the Almighty Himself are likened to water, suggesting that they too experienced a type of split. Harav Ginsburgh explains the meaning of the split in the spiritual realm. Click here to view the video and read the full article.

The Oasis of Transformation

Elimah is the only place that the Torah describes the physical surroundings of the encampment; Elimah had 12 fountains and 70 date trees. Hence we learn that Elimah, a permutation of Elokim, is the oasis in which God’s continual recreation of the world is uniquely manifest as 12 fountains and 70 date trees. What do the fountains and dates symbolize?

Experiencing the Exodus while praying

Although the Jewish people had physically left Egypt, until they actually saw the entire Egyptian army dead at the seashore, they constantly looked back in fear that the Egyptians were close at their heels. It was then that the Jewish people were released from the paranoid fear that had held them in its clutches. At that moment they saw God’s might in redeeming them so clearly that they began singing, “This is my God and I will extol Him.”

Mathematical and scientific parallels to the splitting of the waters

The splitting of the waters at the Red Sea serves as a model for similar mathematical and scientific "splits." Most notable is photolysis, a part of the photosynthesis reactions whereby a photon of light splits water, H₂O, into hydrogen and oxygen. Treating water as 10 protons (2 in hydrogen and 8 in oxygen), splitting water can be likened to dividing 10 into 2 and 8. Similarly the Ten Commandments divide into 2 and 8. The other divisions of 10 (1-9, 3-7, 4-6, and 5-5) and their special place in Judaism are also discussed. Click here to view the video and read the full article.